


Hitopadeśa

by avani



Category: Baahubali (Movies)
Genre: Fluff and Crack, Gen, Happiest Universe, MiM Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-19 23:56:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13134861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avani/pseuds/avani
Summary: Everyone is pleased to hear about Mahendra's new sibling--save Mahendra himself.





	Hitopadeśa

**Author's Note:**

  * For [queenofmahishmati](https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenofmahishmati/gifts).



Devasena knows her son—or more accurately, the extent to which his temper takes after hers—well enough to expect his displeasure at the news, but this is ridiculous. 

Mahendra is perched on the rooftop of the balcony, body rigid with all the indignation his young body can hold; he is still refusing to come down, as he has been for the last three hours. Devasena thinks the time has long since come to pluck him down, his complaints be damned, but her husband is far more patient.

“Mahendra—“

“What do you need a new baby for? You have me!”

“And we will still have you.” Baahubali’s voice is clearly calculated to be as soothing as possible. “You’ll only have a new baby sister or brother as well. It won’t change our love for you. It could not.”

A sniffle. “You thought I would be a daughter,” says Mahendra accusingly. “You wanted one instead. Mother said!”

“I did.” That calm admission shocks Mahendra enough to send him peering, upside-down, from the roof at his father. Devasena’s encouragement at this sign of slow progress wars with her eternal terror that he will fall and break his neck. “And once you were born, I would not have exchanged you for a hundred daughters.”

Mahendra considers this and, mollified, allows himself to drop into his father’s waiting arms. “My Mahendra,” Baahubali whispers gently, holding him close, and Devasena, relieved, hopes heartily to be done with the whole difficult business.

*

Which means it rankles even more that she is responsible for what follows. On the face of it, her blunder hardly seems consequential: at dinner, as is his habit, Mahendra clambors into her lap. Thinking ahead to the growing swell of her stomach, Devasena says absently: “Oh, Mahendra, soon you won’t fit here anymore—“

Her son freezes; his little face twists with sudden offense. Despite her best attempts at reassurances, Mahendra slides down and stalks away. 

“I’ll talk to Uncle,” Baahubali offers into the silence with a confidence Devasena does not share.

*

Kattappa’s idea of helping involves regaling Mahendra with stories of devoted siblings. Most unfortunately, devotion more often than not requires the elder sibling to die dramatically and painfully in service to the other, and Mahendra comes away from the encounter now convinced that the new addition to the family is a threat not only to his happiness, but also his health.

“ _ And then,”  _ Mahendra repeats breathlessly, “the prince was bitten by the thousand serpent kings his sister had accidentally let into the palace, and he stayed quiet so they wouldn’t know where she was hiding, and then he  _ died _ !”

“Simply because it happened in your grandfather’s stories doesn’t mean it will happen in truth,” Devasena reminds him for what must be the hundredth time.

“Maybe.” Mahendra appears unconvinced. “Do any serpent kings live nearby?”

“No,” says Devasena firmly, but most unfortunately, it is at this moment that his father enters their chambers, complaining idly about the plague of snakes the farmers have reported recently.

Mahendra shoots her a look of betrayal before dashing to the refuge of his nursery. Devasena finds herself left glowering at her husband.

“Mother can solve this,” says Baahubali, not a little desperately. 

*****

Devasena is not present when her mother-in-law speaks with her son. She does not have to be; already she knows how the meeting will end, and she can plan her absence accordingly.

“I must say I’m disappointed,” she thinks Sivagami will begin. The Queen Mother does not believe in coddling children by balancing compliments with criticism. “No Prince of Mahishmati would ever behave in such a manner.”

Without needing to see it with her own eyes, Devasena can imagine the stubborn set of Mahendra’s mouth, the droop of his shoulders. Reacting badly to the Queen Mother’s scoldings is yet another facet of Mahendra’s questionable maternal inheritance.

“Well, I’m doing so, aren’t I? And I’m a Prince of Mahishmati, Father says. So they do  _ too _ behave in such a manner.”

Sivagami frowns, Mahendra fumbles with guilt, and the conversation is diverted enough that it ends only in Mahendra being reprimanded by his father for insolence, all thoughts of his rivalry with his unborn sibling forgotten. 

Devasena despairs.

*

“You’re having Mahendra speak with  _ whom?” _

Baahubali shrugs, unable to meet her gaze. “We’ve asked everyone else. If there’s any chance it might help—“

“The only thing your brother might help with,” Devasena says flatly, “is teaching Mahendra how to murder the baby once it’s born.”

Her husband laughs. “Don’t be ridiculous. Bhalla isn’t capable of harming his own flesh and blood.”

That might be so, but it certainly won’t stop her brother-in-law from offering the dreadful advice that is all Devasena expects of him. It is this that sends her to supervise the meeting between the two, in hopes of doing something to control the damage that will be done.

As she enters, Bhalla is saying: “Your father tells me you’re sulking because of the birth of your brother or sister.”

Mahendra only grunts.

“You’re right to.” His nephew looks up, startled, and Bhalla continues: “It will be the most miserable thing that’s ever happened in your young life. As long as you live, your parents will insist that you take care of your sibling, and you’ll never spend a moment without seeing a second shadow trailing behind you. You must always set a good example to be followed; your every mistake will be magnified. And, if you’re truly unlucky, the brat will find a wife every bit as infuriating and produce children every bit as insufferable.”

Mahendra sucks in a breath, clearly threatening to start wailing once more. Bhalla ignores him. 

“Which is why,” he says, “it’s important that you take what little advantage from the brat-to-be that you can.”

Devasena’s son sniffles. “I don’t understand.”

“What sounds more appealing to you: a lifetime of developing pointless headaches over the problems of others, as your father does, or one of adventure?”

An easy enough choice to make. “Adventure!”

Bhalla snorts. “As things stand now, you are your father’s only heir and bound to follow in his footsteps. But should your parents bear a new prince or princess….”

“They could rule instead?” 

“Your parents might have been blessed with a child, but you have been blessed with freedom. Remember that, and your burdens will not seem so heavy.”

Mahendra is very quiet. At last he says, “Uncle Bhalla?”

“Yes?”

“That doesn’t seem  _ so _ bad.”

Bhalla chuckles. “Of course not.”

When her brother-in-law emerges, he looks rather pleased with himself. He catches sight of her and only preens further. “Not such a brute as you always supposed, am I, Devasena?”

“Perhaps not,” murmurs Devasena, too grateful to argue the point further. 

She can only hope her husband won’t hold it over her that he told her so. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hitopadeśa - (Sanskrit) literally, "good advice." Also the name of a collection of Sanskrit fables that the Baahubali characters may well be familiar with.


End file.
